This weekend’s smog was widely forecast by Chinese health officials; after years of denial, the country is now relatively open about its dangerous air pollution problem. (India, on the other hand, can’t even measure how bad the air is in cities like New Delhi, which is widely considered to have some of the world’s dirtiest air.)

And yet, according to the Beijing News via the AP, the race committee still opted to hold the event “because of all the planning that had gone into it.” Instead, organizers passed out sponges so runners could “clean their skin that is exposed to the air.”

Not surprisingly, a small percentage of the 30,000 runners decided to bring their own face masks. Girhay Birhanu Gebru and Fatuma Sado Dergo of Ethiopia won the men’s and women’s competition. Both runners’ times were well off the world-record pace.

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Image: Reuters/stringer
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Image: AP Photo/Andy Wong
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Image: AP Photo/Andy Wong
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